master's thesis aalto

Economics MSc Thesis Information

Department of economics - aalto university school of business, thesis topics and research questions.

Research is motivated by questions. Whether you are doing a literature review or producing original research, it is crucial to be clear about what the research question is. (Usually one is the right number of research questions in an MSc thesis). To determine whether a question is interesting, it is worth considering what would be the use of a credible and precise answer if you (or the literature that you review) obtained it? The hypothetical "user(s)" may be firms, governments, other organizations, or consumers.

The thesis must allow you to show learnedness in Economics . ("Opinnäyte" = "Demonstration of learnedness"). It is not meant to show your learnedness in all aspects and all fields of economics. In particular, there is no need to include both theory and empirical sections in every thesis. Original research and original literature reviews are equally meritorious. However, there needs to be some part in every thesis that addresses the main research question while going deeper into the subject from at least one angle in a way that requires MSc-level Economics.

It is valuable to pick a topic that you find interesting, so that working on the thesis feels less like work. However, not all interesting questions in economics make for good MSc thesis topics. It would be wise to discuss the topic with a faculty member before becoming invested in it.

Examples of thesis topics

List of examples of topic areas and specific thesis topics suggested by faculty.

If you are interested in working on a listed topic, contact the faculty member who suggested it. However, students may be reassigned between advisors in order to keep their numbers balanced across advisors, and also due to faculty leaves of absence.

The list contains also topic areas, which are broader than thesis topics and where you could discuss many types of potential research questions suited for various levels of ambition. It would result in a literature review or in original research in some subset of the topic area.

One purpose of the list is to help students formulate their own research questions by showing what is a proper depth and breadth of a thesis topic. If you have a potential topic, you can simply approach a faculty member with an email that includes an informal description (a couple of paragraphs). If you would like to get started on your thesis, but have no idea for a topic, you can simply ask a faculty member for a topic of their choice in some broad area of economic interest. If you don't know which faculty member to turn to, don't worry, the first one will forward you to a more appropriate one if necessary.

Resources for choosing a thesis topic

Enrolling in the 2023-24 seminars.

To enroll in the thesis seminar a student must have a topic accepted by a faculty member at the Department of Economics. The deadline for the Fall 2023 seminar is May 31st and November 15th for the Spring 2024 seminar. Adjusting the topic to be suitable for approval may require some back-and-forth between the student and the faculty, so students should make sure to begin the process several weeks before the deadline. The student must then notify Kristiina Huttunen (for participation in the Fall seminar) or Marko Terviö (Spring seminar) by email about the topic in the form of a provisional title for the thesis with the faculty member who approved it in cc. After that the student can enroll in the seminar just like in any other course (code 31E99905). The initial approved topic is not set in stone: it can be changed subject to the same approval procedure as the initial topic.

The purpose of the MSc thesis seminar is to learn to present, critique, and comment economic research. When the seminar begins the participants must therefore have already made some progress on their thesis, and need to be ready in the second week of the seminar to give their first presentation (in which the research question is introduced in the context of a broader topic). In the second seminar period students give their main presentation, accompanied by the main paper. These focus on communicating the results of economics research, either your own or the research that your review. The main paper is max 30 pages and the presentation 20-25 minutes. For more information, see the seminar page at MyCourses. The seminar is not meant to substitute for thesis supervision, for which purpose each thesis writer has an individual faculty advisor.

Further information

The seminar is organized by Kristiina Huttunen in Fall 2023 and Marko Terviö in Spring 2024. See the seminar page at MyCourses (search for "31E99905") for current information on seminar work. The official course descriptions for the new academic year won't be published in Oodi until August.

The working language of the seminar is English. The main paper can be written in either Finnish or English, but presentations and discussions in the seminar will be in English.

General advice for the Economics MSc Thesis Seminar -->

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Student Guide

Bachelor's Programme in Business

Programme main page, writing your bachelor's thesis.

To earn your Bachelor of Science (Economics and Business Administration) degree, you are required to write a bachelor’s thesis in accordance with the instructions given by your major. The associated bachelor’s thesis seminar will help you in the writing process, as will your designated thesis advisor. Please note that you must be enrolled as an attending student for the right to study which relates to the bachelor’s thesis you are writing.

Credits awarded for the bachelor’s thesis and seminar

The structures of both the bachelor’s thesis and the related bachelor’s thesis seminar have changed as of 1 August 2022. Previously, students were awarded 2 credits for attending the bachelor’s thesis seminar, but now the workload of the seminar is included in the 10 credits given for the bachelor’s thesis.

If you are studying according to the 2020–2022 curriculum or earlier, but are taking part in the Bachelor's thesis and seminar course after 1 August 2022, to make up for the credit difference, you must earn 2 more credits towards the electives or some other study module in your degree.

How to write and submit my bachelor’s thesis?

• You will find the seminar in your personal study plan or on the programme pages under Curriculum.
• Register for the bachelor’s thesis seminar on Sisu.
• Take part in the seminar work and write your bachelor’s thesis.
• Write your maturity essay (instructions further down on this page).
• Submit your thesis as a single PDF/A file containing the cover page and thesis abstract. See below for details on preparing the file.
• Practice saving the thesis in the correct format before the deadline date, because if you encounter any problems, you will not have time to fix them on the day your thesis is due.
• Submit the same file to both systems.
• You have to be enrolled as an attending student for the right to study to which the bachelor’s thesis and maturity essay relate.
• The abstracts of bachelor's and master's theses to be saved from January 1, 2024 will always be openly published in the Aaltodoc publication archive together with other metadata of the theses. Read more about theses as public documents here .
• Further information about publishing theses here .

How to format your thesis for submission

• Use the thesis template for all Aalto University Schools that can be found here . The first page of the submitted file should be the cover page, while the next should be the thesis abstract page. Use the same language in the cover page and abstract as you have in the bachelor’s thesis.
• Please note that the maturity essay is a separate element of the bachelor’s degree, evaluated against a specific set of criteria. You cannot use the thesis abstract of your bachelor’s thesis as your maturity essay. Read more about the maturity essay below on this page.
• Save your file as an archival PDF/A file. Suitable formats: PDF/A-1a, -1b, -2a and -2b. Do not use any other file format.

Cover page and abstract templates (Word) in Finnish and in English are available under the instructions.

Instructions for converting a file to PDF/A compliant version here

How do I submit my bachelor’s thesis and maturity essay for evaluation?

For the schedule for thesis evaluation, see the page Graduation. You can submit your thesis and maturity essay for evaluation even before you have completed all your studies.

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• You must keep track of the progress of your maturity essay evaluation: your thesis advisor will evaluate the contents, while a language teacher will evaluate your skills in your language of primary and secondary education. For details on keeping track of the evaluation process, see the thesis submission workspace of your department.
• If you need to make corrections to your maturity essay, make them as instructed in the feedback given.
• Submit your bachelor’s thesis to eAge for archiving. Click here to go to eAge .
• Remember to check your spam folder, because sometimes eAge messages end up there.

If the thesis and maturity essay are the last study attainments you need to complete to graduate, you can then request for graduation as a Bachelor of Science (Economics and Business Administration), see more information on the page Graduation. Instructions for requesting graduation are here .

What if I notice an error in my bachelor’s thesis after I have submitted it?

• Ask for your eAge form to be returned to you by emailing to [email protected] .
• Correct the error in your thesis.
• Submit the corrected version to the MyCourses workspace no later than on the deadline date.
• Once you get your eAge form back, replace the thesis file with the corrected one and resend the form.
• If you had submitted the earlier version of the thesis separately to your thesis advisor, send the corrected version also to the thesis advisor.
• Suspend the thesis evaluation process by sending an email to the planning officer of your programme or to [email protected] .
• Let the thesis advisor evaluate your thesis and then follow the instructions given in item 3 below.
• If you wish to correct an error in your thesis after its evaluation, you can append an errata document to your thesis as instructed below.

Turnitin - an aid for skilful writing and prevention of plagiarism

Errors in approved theses are corrected on an errata page

Instructions on the use of errata page

Maturity essay

You must write what is called a ‘maturity essay’ as part of your thesis process. The maturity essay is obligatory for a bachelor’s degree and for a master’s degree. The purpose of maturity essay is:

• to demonstrate conversance with the subject area of your thesis, and
• to demonstrate, if necessary, your proficiency in the language of your primary and secondary education.

You only need to demonstrate your language proficiency once: in connection with the first maturity essay you complete.

The maturity essay at the bachelor’s level

For your maturity essay at the bachelor’s level, you will write an executive summary or a media advisory. You can choose whichever one you want.

Instructions for writing a maturity essay

Language of the maturity essay.

The maturity essay is written in Finnish or Swedish or in some cases in English. The maturity essay is an obligatory part of the thesis process for all students regardless of their language of education. Read more about the language of education here .

Write your bachelor’s-level maturity essay in Finnish or Swedish , if one of these languages was your language of education.

• The language of education is usually the one shown as your mother tongue on your school-leaving certificate from upper secondary school.
• If you did not complete the upper secondary school syllabus, but completed an international track of upper secondary studies in Finland or the equivalent of Finnish upper secondary studies abroad, then your language of primary and secondary education is the one shown as your mother tongue in your certificate from comprehensive school.

Write your bachelor’s-level maturity essay in English , if your language of education cannot be determined.

• If neither Finnish or Swedish is shown as your mother tongue on your upper secondary or comprehensive school certificate, then the language of education is most likely undefined in your case.
• You must apply for determination of your proficiency requirements regarding the national languages. The requirements must be determined before you write your maturity essay.
• Read more about determining your language proficiency requirements of the page Exemptions from language requirements .

Maturity essay assignment

Write a one-page specialist text based on your thesis. In an analytic and reflective manner, discuss the results or findings of your research as well as their significance. Pay close attention to your choice of genre (see instructions below), your headings and your text’s readability and linguistic clarity. Note as well that your maturity essay must function as an independent piece of writing without references to your thesis.

Option 1: Executive summary

The goal of the summary is to support executive decision-making. In contrast to your thesis abstract, your objective here is to persuade readers to ‘buy’ your research results, convincing them that your research has benefits and practical applications for economic life and/or for business.

Give a clear structure to your text and use headings that describe the contents: present your results or findings and their benefits, substantiate the benefits and target them at the right target audience, then propose a solution for the problem you noted.

Option 2: Media advisory

The aim of a media advisory (or press release) is to present the key findings and significance of your research in such a way that the document may serve as a news item and be published in a newspaper, magazine or on social media. Your task is to raise interest in your thesis topic and show the newsworthiness of your findings.

Write the advisory in the ‘inverted pyramid’ news style, providing the target group with the most important information at the top of the text and then proceeding to the less important. The advisory should have an attention-grabbing headline, its opening should encapsulate the essential matter, and it should have a few subheadings outlining the discussion paragraphs.

Thesis template and file instructions

Use a Calibri or Calibri-equivalent font for writing your maturity essay. Use font size 11, 1.15 line-spacing and set all margins at 2 cm. You may use these guidelines as a template in English or in Finnish .

Remember to include your name and student number in the file. When your maturity essay is finished, convert it to a PDF file and give the file a name in the form Firstname_Lastname_studentnumber_Maturity_essay.

Maturity essay submission and approval

Submit the maturity essay file in the MyCourses learning environment at the same time as you submit your bachelor’s thesis for approval. Instructions on submitting the thesis and maturity essay are available above on this page.

Your thesis advisor will examine the content of your thesis for your conversance with the topic, and a proofreader will check the language of your thesis. You need to follow the progress of the content and language reviews yourself: see the directions in the MyCourses space for your major.

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• Published: 17.5.2022
• Updated: 15.4.2024

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Preparing a Master's Thesis

Starting the thesis work:.

• Familiarize yourself with SCI's instructions and thesis process ; these instructions and process descriptions are valid with the exception that you do not have to give a presentation of your thesis
• Agree upon the thesis topic with your supervisor .
• Apply for the approval of the topic 

Preparing your thesis:

• Primary guidance comes from your advisor.
• Discuss the thesis structure with your supervisor already in the early phase of the process.
• Remember that all theses are public documents.
• The Systems Analysis Laboratory maintains an archive of all master's theses online. If you add the text below in Finnish or in English to the cover page of your thesis, your thesis can be made openly available in this archive: "Työn saa tallentaa ja julkistaa Aalto-yliopiston avoimilla verkkosivuilla. Muilta osin kaikki oikeudet pidätetään. " "The document can be stored and made available to the public on the open internet pages of Aalto University. All other rights are reserved. " If the text has not been added, the thesis will be password-protected but still available in the laboratory.

Finalizing the thesis:

• You will need to give a presentation of on your thesis (about 15 minutes). Unless you have agreed otherwise with your supervisor, you can give this presentation in the weekly seminar of the Systems Analysis Laboratory, held on Mondays at 15.15 in RIIHI (Y225a, Otakaari 1). Once your supervisor has agreed that you are ready to present your thesis in this seminar, please contact Leevi Olander to reserve a time. After giving the presentation, please fill in the thesis presentation form on your part and ask your supervisor to sign and submit it to the student services of the MSc programme . 
• Deliver the thesis to the supervisor for feedback and guidance. Note that the supervisor may need up to a month to read your thesis. You may also need time to edit and correct your thesis. 
• Once the thesis has been submitted, the supervisor typically contacts the advisor before preparing the assessment statement. 

Submitting the thesis:

• Follow the SCI-level instructions and links
• Email a pdf copy of the thesis to Minna Westerlund .  
• If you choose to have your thesis bound as a hard copy, it is common to give a bound copy to your advisor and supervisor.

Evaluation of the thesis:

• The supervisor proposes a grade for your thesis in the assessment statement. See evaluation principles .
• The Master's Programme Committee accepts all theses and decides on the grades.

Congratulations!

• You have graduated with valuable skills in Systems and Operations Research! 
• Keep in touch with us also in the future!

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Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

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